Personality-Based Advertising: A Behavioral Targeting Case Study
Why Demographic Targeting Stops Working, and What Personality-Based Targeting Does Differently
Demographic targeting sorts customers by age, gender, income, and education. It works up to a point, but people who share a demographic profile don’t make decisions the same way. Two 40-year-old homeowners with the same income can respond to completely different messages. Once a campaign has reached everyone who fits the demographic, results tend to plateau.
Personality-based targeting starts with how customers think instead: what motivates them, how they process information, and what makes them trust a message. The study below tested whether matching customers and media audiences by personality type could outperform the demographic approach.
Study Overview: Testing Personality Typing as an Advertising Strategy
Historically, companies rely on customer surveys to produce consumer data. This data consists primarily of age ranges, gender, HHI, education, profession, etc. and is generally beneficial when creating marketing campaigns. The purpose of this test was to explore the potential benefits of identifying customers by personality types and employing that data in future marketing strategies. The collection method employed utilized a new behavioral technology that analyzes a single facial image (selfie) and processes that image through phenotype and genotype databases which have been studied and validated for over 30 years. The facial image analysis was processed through two clinically proven personality inventories (Big 5 and DISC).
The test was designed to reveal if greater campaign success could be realized by:
(a) Identifying and matching customer personality types to audience personality types
(b) Enhanced insights into ad creative written for specific personality types
Behavioral Targeting Case Study: Nutraceutical Brand Results
The ADcology agency had been working with a top 5 nutraceutical brand on TV, podcast and radio for 18+ months prior to commencing this test. ADcology’s technology scrubbed 112 verified customers from social media and (anonymously) processed them through their behavioral technology. It should be noted that customer personality patterns emerged around the 50-processing mark and solidified by customer #112. The study clearly identified that 74%+ of this businesses’ customers fit into (2) two dominant personality types. Learnings included personality profiles, introversion/extroversion levels, agreeableness, compassion, curiosity, avoidance, conscientiousness, learning styles (visual, auditory, print), bias, speech preferences, social engagement, most likely to be influenced by, and much more.
Campaign Results: What Personality-Based Media Matching Delivered
Once compiled, the businesses’ personality profiles were matched against audience profiles and shared with creative script teams. In every area of measurement, deep personality insights into verified customers, when matched with corresponding media, overwhelmingly led to more profitable campaigns.
Key Performance Highlights: Metrics From Personality-Based Advertising
74% of customers fit into 2 primary personality types
28% increase from leads to conversion
34% decrease in cost per lead
22% increase in average order value
29% increase in lifetime customer value
58% reduction in unsuccessful media tests
Is Personality-Based Targeting Repeatable? From One Case Study to a Proven Method
These results weren’t a one-time win. They came from a process that can be applied to other brands the same way.
It starts, as this study did, with a brand’s own verified customers. ADcology’s behavioral matching technology builds personality profiles from a sample of those customers. In this study, clear patterns emerged at around 50 customers and were solid by 112. Those profiles are then matched to the shows, hosts, and audiences most likely to share them, and passed to the creative team, so the message is written for how those customers actually think and decide.
That’s the core difference between demographic targeting and personality-based behavioral matching. Demographics describe who a customer is; personality-based matching predicts how they’ll decide. It’s also why unsuccessful media tests dropped by 58% here: when placements are chosen by personality fit, less budget goes to tests that were never likely to work.
Learn more about how ADcology’s behavioral matching technology works and the ADcology Behavioral Advertising Framework behind it.
